On July 31, 1965, Josh White brought his “charming obscenity” to a modest crowd at the Berkshire Music Barn.

Josh White at Music Barn

By Lisa Lansing for The Berkshire Eagle.

JOSH WHITE is like having Christmas; you know what’s coming but the presents are always different.

He sang for a modest crowd of admirers at the Music Barn Saturday afternoon. It was good to have him back. His style and lyrical, charming obscenity are rarely heard among the numerous small fry of folk singing.

THERE WERE “Dupre,” “Baby, You Know What I Want From You … Period,” “Apples, Peaches and Cherries,” “Jerry,” “Cindy, ” all of these sung with the sense of “real” that White gives his music. He lets his listeners know he was there when it happened or that he got it straight from someone who knows. The feeling of immediacy he gives is a true one. His part in 20th century folk music has been an honored one all the way from his days as a sideman-companion for old Blind Lemon Jefferson to the so-called race recordings of local musical idiom during the 1930s.

WHITE’S OWN songs are solidly in the tradition of setting down happenings and impressions for the historical record. His song about Franklin D. Roosevelt, “The Man Who Couldn’t Walk Around,” is written with metaphorical folk language, “we made him captain of our crew,” and with hope “his nerve is in this nation still.” The song is still one of the best things anyone ever said about Roosevelt.

One of the good things about a White performance is the thumping, zinging zest of his guitar playing. He makes it whine, sing and thunder with wonderful agility. His voice is whisky rough. If he doesn’t sing very well, as he told Saturday’s audience, it’s all right because he’s really just telling a story.

His accompanying bass player, Bob Cranshaw, gave White a solid but uneventful background.